Monday, December 29, 2008

Greetings from chilly Minneapolis, where we've had a heat wave lately - up to 30 for a few days now! The 'warmth' caused a lot of melting, but then things freeze again so most of the sidewalks around here have turned to solid ice. It seemed like a perfect time for ice skating!

It was pretty icy just getting the five blocks or so over to the the lake.

Here's the lake! (Just watch out for thin ice areas.)

They have a warming "house" and a pile of skates that people can borrow for free. Jeremy and Ian (Jeremy's brother) both had their own skates. I had to dig through the pile to find a pair that fit.

We're on the ice!

Some places had the most amazing clear ice going down some distance and all these frozen air bubbles coming up - it looked like the starry night sort of.

Here are a couple shots of Ian and I skating - I'm the one that looks like a giant sloth.

But, for my first time ever skating, I never fell down (or fell through the ice)!!

Friday, December 26, 2008

I kept alluding to how busy I was sewing, so here's what I did! These became gifts for family and friends and I had to wait till now to show it all.

For many years I've made it a tradition to make pajama pants for the guys in the family. There have been some wacky patterns (all in flannel): fish, wolves, cats, snowy cabin scenes, camping scenes, so forth. This year I made the Banana Pants for Jeremy's brother, penguin pants for my sister, and "rock n' roll skulls" pants for my brother-in-law Jeremy (and matching ones for their soon-to-be-born daughter!). I didn't make any for my brother this year because all he'll wear is boring plaid!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Well, we finished off the first flush of Shiitakes awhile ago. The block of mushroom stuff is supposed to go dormant for awhile, then you start it up again and are supposed to get more.

So, while that block was being dormant, Jeremy decided to try growing mushrooms a different way. He decided to get some mushroom spawn (or something like that) and inoculate some growing medium himself. (It only sounds like I know what I'm talking about - I really don't.)

The chosen growing medium was straw, which had to be cut up in little pieces...

boiled to sterilize it...

and put in a large enough container to mix all the mushroom spawn into it. We had a little stopper in the tub, but that didn't stop some straw from going down the drain and plugging up the tub!

Then the straw-mushroom spawn combo was packed into bags and sealed...

Monday, December 1, 2008

My family used to tease me saying that I learned to wrap presents from my grandma: using tons of tape! And also a lot of knotted ribbons and bows that are impossible to untie. Opening a gift was like trying to get into Fort Knox. They still let me wrap many of the Christmas presents though because I was really good at wrapping. After I went off to college, I would return home and a family member or two would direct me to different areas of the house to secretly wrap most of their gifts.

Everything changed the Christmas of my Junior year. I worked during Christmas break so I didn’t get home till Christmas Eve day. I brought my gifts home and quickly wrapped them up. I also wrapped several other gifts that my mom hadn’t had time to wrap. Everything was wrapped and ready to go by the time we went to bed that night.

Christmas morning we surrounded the tree and spent a couple hours unwrapping gifts, oohing and ahhing over gifts, and enjoying the morning. After it was over, we gathered up the torn paper, bits of ribbon and bows, stuffed it all in garbage bags and took it down to the dumpster.

And that’s when I saw it: the dumpster overloaded with unwanted boxes, the remains of Christmas celebrations, and wrapping paper, tons of wrapping paper. The dumpster was overflowing with garbage. I looked at the trash I was carrying and realized much of it had been pristine, still on the tube, less than 24 hours ago. I was overwhelmed by the incredible amount of waste. I resolved to change right then and there.

Next year, I thought, I’m going to find a different way to wrap gifts. I settled on using fabric for wrapping. You can purchase some great looking holiday-themed fabric on sale after the holiday season. The first year I didn’t do anything to my scraps of fabric – just wrapped them around gifts and tied the fabric in place with ribbons. My family was very doubtful – and no doubt thought I was a bit crazy. But then my mom caught on and the next year she sewed some of the fabric into bags so it was easier to wrap some items. She also got more fabric and some fancy ribbon from the fabric store. It took a couple years but now most of our gifts are wrapped in fabric.

Clean-up is amazing. We just shake out the fabric, fold it up, and put it back in a box to be used next year. There are still a few paper-wrapped packages because my brother loves ripping and tearing, but I at least haven’t bought a single roll of wrapping paper in almost 10 years.

You too may like ripping and tearing your gifts open, but I encourage you to try some alternative wrapping solutions for at least a few gifts this year. According to Natural Built Home, “If every family wrapped just three gifts this way [that is, not using standard wrapping paper], it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields.” They suggest wrapping presents with old maps, the comics section of a newspaper, or children's artwork. Some people use plain brown paper and affix recycled greeting cards to the front or beautiful pictures cut out from magazines.

I've also heard the suggestion to "give experiences" instead of stuff: tickets to a show, time spent together at a special place, massage, etc. You can also give gift certificates for services you can provide: babysitting, fixing bikes, computer help, etc. This is a great way to help create good memories and not piles of packaging and junk.

If you still like the idea of giving actual things to your loved ones, consider making gifts or buying homemade gifts from local artists. Here are a couple lists to get your creative juices flowing:

Your Homesteader

This is the blog formerly known as “Northwest Meets Midwest,” where I shared about the absurdities and adventures of living in the Midwest (having moved here from the Northwest). But really, this blog has been more and more a story of how we’ve fallen into urban farming and homesteading. So read on and enjoy our adventures in canning, preserving, mushroom-growing, local/organic fanaticism, chicken raising, designing and constructing, sewing, and attempting a little self-sufficiency in our corner of Minneapolis.